


Of Loneliness

by yaruna



Series: Of Years Gone By [19]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Aragorn POV, Friendship, Gen, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 18:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4930666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaruna/pseuds/yaruna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aragorn POV</p><p>Wherein Aragorn and Legolas get trapped by a rockslide</p><p>All parts of the series are stand-alone one-shots, though some may have references to previous happenings</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Loneliness

'Legolas?' I asked as soon as I opened my eyes. Something had happened, something bad, and I was worried about the elf.

'I'm fine.' He rasped out. 'You?' He never abbreviates his words, or gives clipped sentences, so how he said it told me more about his state than what he said. He was obviously far from fine, and I tried to turn around to tell him this when I felt that I was trapped. I looked towards my legs and saw they completely obscured by rocks, my right leg looked like it had been crushed. Which made me start to feel a shooting pain. What  _is_  it that makes you feel pain only when you see it should hurt, and not before?

'You?' Legolas asked again, louder this time.

'I'm trapped.' I grunted. Legolas probably was too, or he would have been standing above me, trying to get the rock off.

'As am I.' He admitted grudgingly and I tried to twist my head around to look at him. He was just slightly behind and below me, and I could see only part his head, part of his chest and an arm sticking out from the rocks.

'It would certainly look that way.' I chuckled, but critically watched his pale face. He was still quite brittle, although he would frown upon me for calling him thus, from his latest bout with orcs. I was really not in the mood for another close call. I had had enough of those as of late.

'Can you move, Estel?' He asked softly, looking up in my direction, and I realized he probably could not see much of me over the rock I was lying on.

His question made me try, and I noticed I had missed that I had a broken arm as well.

'Just slightly.' I answered, and he sighed. 'How will we get away?'

'Can you whistle?' He asked then and I was frowned.

'I can.' I answered hesitantly. 'But what good will come of it?'

He chuckled when I did nothing for several moments, but then he started coughing. I really wanted to see him properly, so I tried to drag myself slightly to the side and managed just enough so that I could see his entire face. Blood had spattered the rocks in front of his face, and a small trickle was running down his chin from his mouth.

'Ah, there you are.' He smiled weakly, but with a light in his eyes that I had not seen in months. 'Please whistle for Andúnë.'

'He never listens to me.' I muttered, but put two fingers in my mouth anyways, and whistled loudly. I heard a loud neigh in the distance, probably from where we had left them before we had gone climbing the ravine.

'Hey, Legolas?' I asked silently, and frowned when I got no response. I turned my head back to him. 'Legolas!'

''m 'wake.' He muttered, but his eyes were drooping. 'Stinking stones.'

'Just how is it you got trapped anyways?' I grumbled. He is an Elf! He is supposed to be able to run above these things.

He opened his mouth to answer, but then his concentration went elsewhere, his eyes moving to the top of the ravine.

'Good, Andúnë, come here.' He said, just a bit louder than it had been when he had been talking to me. The sound of the horse's hooves sliding over the rocks was just a bit scary, and I had to look at the horse as it climbed downwards. I did not very much feel like getting a horse over me on top of everything. So I looked, although even if he had fallen, I could not have done anything. It was merely the false sense of control, of knowing what was about to happen, that made me look.

When the horse was at the same height as Legolas, I held my breath. I was not certain if the beast would step on him or not, but then it sidestepped quickly, and I realized it had been avoiding its master's legs.

'Andúnë.' Legolas whispered as the horse went below him and pressed his muzzle against Legolas' ear and blew some air at him, making the Elf chuckle happily.

'Andúnë, go to Imladris. Get us help.' Legolas whispered then, and the horse only hesitated for a moment before it jumped off at a gallop. I had to cover my head with my unbroken arm to avoid the rocks it kicked away, afraid it would start a new rockslide.

'You could have told him to go slowly up the ravine…' I muttered, and Legolas chuckled.

'I could have.' He smiled.

It was silent for a long while, before I was getting bored of it.

'Legolas?' I tried, trying to hold off a shiver when I did not hear a reply. It was getting cold, and the healer in me immediately understood it was due to the loss of blood, rather than the lack of response from Legolas. I looked down at my leg again and realized it could not be ignored any longer. It was not easy, but I managed to unbuckle and withdraw my belt from under me.

I took a deep breath, and levered myself to a sitting position. It really is impossible to do that without trying to tense the muscles in your legs, so I screamed and saw black spots dancing in front of my eyes. They disappeared quickly, and I could still hear the echoing from my shout. That awful echoing made me feel ashamed of my weakness, and I looked down to Legolas, to make sure he had not heard. But I was even more worried to see that he had not even opened his eyes. My scream and its echo should have woken him had he been as fine as he claimed.

I chuckled; maybe I should better make up my mind? I would certainly rather have him awake and teasing me for being a weak human, than to see him as now, with his eyes closed.

I shook my head a little, trying to clear it. The blood loss was really affecting me, usually I am not this easily distracted. I continued my efforts of trying to get my belt underneath my thigh. I'm not sure you realize just how difficult that is, when both legs are trapped and one arm is badly broken. I kind of had to try to push the end of the belt between my legs, and direct it to continue under my right leg when it seemed to have a preference to go under my left instead. I had to try it twice before it finally wormed its way out on the right side of my leg. I immediately grabbed it and pulled it through the belt loop to get a tourniquet.

I could not stay upright any longer, and carefully leaned back, again trying to avoid putting any unnecessary strain on my leg.

'Legolas?' I asked. 'Your hair is getting dirty.' I tried. Had he been faking, that was usually a sure way to make him at least glare at me. He really needed to wake up, if for no other reason than to keep me company. 'Elfling?'

It was quite boring to be looking at rocks and sky to be honest.

'Just how did you manage to get trapped?' I muttered, thinking I had already asked that question once, but I did not really care.

We had been climbing down into the ravine, Legolas had promised there were some awesome trees down there, looking genuinely happy. I had not seen him look that happy since before… the Orcs… and I would have climbed to the stars if bringing one down could make him happy again. I know he tried, but I had seen him at moments he had thought he was alone. Always so serious, with a forlorn expression on his face, as if he did not know exactly what he was doing. This was the first time he had taken initiative to do anything, and it killed me that it had turned out like this.

'Legolas?' I asked, once more. 'Don't leave me alone.' I pleaded with him.

I frowned as I again tried to figure out just what had happened. I had slipped, I remembered, and Legolas had caught me. Then the rumbling had started. We had climbed as fast as we could, but then the first rocks fell. Legolas had still held onto my arm and had tugged on me. A rock had fallen right where I was, and then the ground had collapsed beneath us. We were holding onto each other for as long as possible, until I could no longer hold on to consciousness.

'You saved me.' I groaned in realization. ' _Why_  do you always have to be so bloody altruistic?' I spat at him, and looked at him closely again. He looked, if possible, even more pale than he had previously, and I really wanted to get to him. Where was that horse anyways? Were not elfish horses supposed to be fast? But to be honest, I knew he was fast, I had ridden him once, all those years ago, when he'd been in a hurry, when I had been riding for help from Imladris.

'You asshole!' I chuckled madly when I realized just what that implicated.

'Legolas! Legolas, you cunning Elf!' I almost shouted at him now. 'Wake up so I can have the pleasure of killing you!' I chuckled, but soon deflated.

'Stupid, stupid Aragorn.' I told myself. I should have known that horse could make it home on its own. I had known probably, deep down. I had some vague memory of thinking the horse would have kept going no matter if I had stayed on it or not. I could have stayed at Legolas' side back then.

I sighed. It made no sense to regret that now. But as soon as we got out of this latest predicament, I would certainly give him a piece of my mind.

It was getting troublesome, keeping my eyes open, but I realized closing them would be about the worst thing I could do.

'Legolas, you know I admire you, right?' I whispered silently, because I did not  _really_  want him to hear it. Had he been awake he would have heard it anyways of course, being an Elf and all. But I still somehow hoped that he  _did_  know. He's always been a constant in my life. The friend I could always come to. The friend I always knew I had, even when we had argued.

I always felt lonely when he was not around.

Rocks shifted above us then and I looked up towards the top of the ravine to see Elladan and Elrohir stand next to Andúnë. They were painted as dark silhouettes against the setting sun, and they looked every bit like the heroes they were.

'Need help?' Elladan chuckled, but the hurry with which they climbed down towards us kind of belied his humor.

'About time!' I was able to grunt before I joined Legolas in involuntary sleep, no longer quite so lonely.


End file.
